Hays Germany: A Role Model for Business Process Management

[D_Streichert]

Blog post in German

Business Process Management (BPM) is a crucial success factor for every future-oriented company. In an exciting webcast, Devorie Klingels-Leuschner (Head of Business Process Management at Hays Germany) and Wassilios Lolas (Global Vice President Market Impact at SAP Signavio) demonstrated how BPM can not only be introduced but also sustainably anchored within a company.

Let's take a look at the highlights of the webcast together. Learn what insights you can take from Hays for your own Business Process Management. I will present you with 7 success factors that I found particularly important in the webcast.

First, let me briefly introduce the company Hays:

Hays Germany – Personnel Service Provider & Recruitment Agency

Hays is a global personnel service provider in the field of skilled specialists and executives. In Germany alone, there are around 6,000 customers and approximately 480,000 professionals in the talent pool.

The company operates in numerous industries and contract types – from recruitment to temporary employment to work contracts and workforce management solutions.

In addition to classic personnel distribution, topics such as new work, digitization, diversity, and sustainability are also of great importance.

The Path to Implementing BPM

Recognizing the Need

At Hays, it all began about seven years ago with the project of digital contract creation. It quickly became clear that a unified and consistent process management is essential to efficiently design projects and advance digitization. An eye-opening moment was when the project participants realized that the contract is only a small part of a much larger process. This led to the realization that an end-to-end view is necessary.

Based on this insight and driven by the increasing strategic relevance of their digitization projects, Hays Germany decided to build a structured process management. The goal was to approach changes holistically and process-oriented to increase the success of these initiatives.

Building the Process Organization

A fundamental step was the introduction of process owners and process managers: process owners are often managers or technical experts who are responsible for their processes and can make decisions. Process managers provide operational support and are responsible for the detailed work. This structure helps to clearly define responsibility and decision-making authority and to manage processes efficiently.

The process owners and process managers meet regularly to discuss suggestions for improvement. These meetings not only help with decision-making, but also promote exchange and create an overarching view of the processes. This collaborative work in a community strengthens the sense of responsibility and commitment of the individual participants.

The Role of Technology

Technology plays a key role in the implementation of Business Process Management. Hays analyzed and tested several providers of BPM solutions. The decision fell on SAP Signavio, based on feedback from users who work with the software daily, including modelers.

Another important argument was the scalability and "evolution potential" of our solution: starting from the establishment of a process community, through documentation, to process mining, analysis, and optimization, SAP Signavio is so modular and flexible to keep up with the growing requirements and development of Business Process Management.

7 Success Factors for Business Process Management

Devorie Klingels-Leuschner emphasizes in the webcast that the path to a professional process organization must be very individual. It must fit the maturity level of the organization and the employees. What worked at Hays does not necessarily have to be implemented the same way elsewhere.

I believe that you can learn a lot from Hays' experiences and adopt them for their own organization. Based on their exciting experience report in the webcast, I take away the following key factors that are necessary for successful Business Process Management:

1. Company-Wide Support

A key success factor is the clear commitment from the board. Without the backing of top management, it would have been hardly possible to implement BPM so successfully at Hays. This support is crucial to provide the necessary resources and enforce organizational changes.

2. Clear Understanding of: “Why are we even doing BPM?”

The question of "why" is important in order to gain the commitment of management and the entire workforce. At Hays Germany, as mentioned above, it was digital contract creation.

This was a key experience, as it became clear that digitalization or automation projects cannot just focus on individual process steps, but that the entire end-to-end process should be considered. This led to the realization that a framework and organizational structures are necessary for holistic process management.

3. Foundation of a Process Community

BPM is not a one-man show. It requires a strong community where especially process owners and process managers are responsible for sub-processes or certain sections of a process.

The community enables cross-functional collaboration and ensures that all stakeholders are involved and their voices are heard. Involving all stakeholders in a common discussion is important to break down silos.

4. Transparent Communication

Regular and transparent communication is essential. At Hays, there are clear governance structures and regular meetings to discuss progress and challenges. This transparency helps build trust and ensure that all participants are on the same page.

5. Continuous Improvement

BPM is not a one-time project but a continuous process. It is important to take the first step and then proceed step by step. It is also helpful to obtain external input – be it from other companies, consultants, or scientists.

At Hays, there are regular reviews and optimizations. Through this continuous improvement process (CIP), BPM remains lively and relevant. It is also important to make successes visible and celebrate them to keep motivation high.

6. Training and Development

Another important aspect is the training and development of employees. Hays has a clear onboarding program and special training for process managers and owners. This ensures that all participants have the necessary skills and knowledge to use BPM effectively.

7. Constructive Handling of Escalations

How does the BPM team deal with escalations when process owners do not agree?

At Hays, there is a steering committee that makes decisions when necessary. This steering committee consists of the directors of the affected areas and can escalate to the board if needed.

So far, this steering committee has only had to mediate an agreement once, which speaks to the years of positive collaboration among the process participants.

Watch the Webcast Now

I found the customer webcast (in German language) “Kunden-Webcast: Keep the fire burning – Begeisterung für BPM als Organisationseinheit wecken und erh...” so exciting that I gladly watched it in the evening after work 🙂.

Take 45 minutes of your time now to watch this highly recommended presentation.

Feel free to leave your own learnings from the webcast as a comment below!

Kind regards,
Dennis Streichert